1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program, and more particularly to a technique suitably usable for performing image processing of a scene including a vivid object.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image processing apparatus discriminating the scene of an image and the type of an object to perform image processing corresponding to the discriminated type of the object of the scene has conventionally been known. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-259372 discloses an image output apparatus discriminating whether an input image is a scene including a vivid object (hereinafter referred to as vivid color scene) or not, and outputting the input image with high resolution for the vivid image.
The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open 2000-259372 discriminates whether a scene is the vivid color scene or not on the basis of whether the number of high chroma pixels is larger than a predetermined number or not. As examples of the vivid color scene, here, there can be a scene having a vivid background and a scene having a vivid principal object (main object). Between them, the distribution of high chroma pixels in the vivid background scene varies depending on the existence of a main object, such as a person, which is not included in other than the background, and for example, if a person is included in the scene, the number of high chroma pixels decreases due to existence of the image of the person. Accordingly, the image output apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open 2000-259372 has the problem that it is difficult to discriminate an image which included therein a main object and a vivid background scene, as a vivid color scene and therefore it is impossible to suitably discriminate such an image and output the image with high resolution scene.
In view of the foregoing, it is an aspect of the invention to attain performing appropriate image processing to an image including a vivid color scene, independently of whether an input image includes a main object therein or not.